Warwickshire-based discretionary and wealth manager Montague Capital Ltd has been issued a final notice by the Financial Conduct Authority for failing to pay regulatory fees and levies totalling almost £2,000.
Montague had been a discretionary manager partner of wrap platform Novia. At the time of writing Novia’s website still has a page dedicated to the firm, which detailed its core offering of five “actively managed” strategies aimed to meet specific risk profiles.
Novia’s current list of discretionary fund manager partners totals 42 firms and does not include Montague. The wrap says it can also work with any authorised discretionary manager, including those not included on its panel.
In its final notice, the FCA said that it is not satisfied that Montague is a “fit and proper person” and that the non-payment of fees raised questions over “whether the business was managed to ensure that its affairs were conducted in a sound and prudent manner”.
According to the regulator, the firm failed to pay regulatory fees and levies of £1,887, and failed to respond to its repeated requests for it to pay the overdue balance.
This action follows a warning notice issued to Montague Capital Limited on 7 February 2013.
Pippa Russell, head of corporate communications, told FTAdviser: “The clients, brand and intellectual capital of Montague were bought by Saltus some time ago. The final notice issued by the FCA has therefore no impact on Novia clients who had invested in Montague Capital.”
This is the seventh final notice issued by the FCA since the changeover on 1 April. The last final notice was issued to Horn Express Ltd, formerly Qaran Express Money Transfer Ltd, for breaching the Payments Services Regulations by failing to keep customer funds segregated.
